Grant of special status to J&K a historical blunder: Jaitley

Chandigarh: The BJP on Sunday threatened to launch a movement if the UPA government at the Centre accepts the report of its interlocutors pertaining to special status for Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.

"We will not sit as silent spectators and once again the nation will see the same movement once launched by (late) Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh)," senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley told a seminar here.

Mukherjee had launched a movement against the entry permit system that prevailed in J&K earlier under which citizens from other parts of the country had to obtain a permit to gain entry, he said.

Mukherjee had also raised his voice against grant of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under article 370, the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said.

"It was due to the wrong ideology of (India`s first Prime Minister late Jawaharlal) Nehru that Article 370 was incorporated in J&K," he said.

Carving out of a special status for Jammu and Kashmir was a "historical blunder", Jaitley said.

"The provision was intended to create a separate psyche that we (J&K) are not as much part of India as other states are.

"The history will have to sit in judgment that Nehruvian vision on Kashmir proved costly for India," he said at the seminar "Report of Kashmir Interlocutors".